Monday, September 14, 2009

My brother and I got a dog when we were 4 and 6, respectively – I found the following photograph while going through some of our old stuff at my father’s:

That’s me and Xuxa (her name), when I was about 9 years old. :D

My brother used to feed her just about anything – every time he was eating something, he’d share it with her, and that included bread, yogurt, and all kinds of sweets. But chocolate was her favorite. :)

She is no longer with us – my brother had a fever for days when she died – but I’m sure she would love these chocolatey tartlets. :D

For chocolate pastry, pulse flour, icing sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and process until fine crumbs form. Add egg and 1 tablespoon water and pulse until dough just comes together – I used my Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.
Transfer to a lightly floured work surface, form into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (about 1 hour).

Make the pear topping: combine sugar, ginger and 200ml water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, add pear and cook until soft (5-7 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, remove pear and slice each half lengthways – you should get about 6-7 slices out of each half. Set aside until required.*

Grease eight 9cm-brioche molds and dust with cocoa. Divide pastry into 8 even pieces and roll each piece between two pieces lightly floured baking paper to approximately 12cm in diameter. Line moulds with pastry and trim excess. Prick dough all over with a fork. Refrigerate until firm and chilled (about 30 minutes).

Preheat oven to 190ºC/374ºF. Place molds on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven to 160ºC/320ºF.

Meanwhile, for chocolate filling, melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar to combine. Add flour and cocoa, whisking to combine, then whisk in chocolate mixture. Using a plastic spatula, fold mixture until smooth and glossy.
Divide filling among molds and bake until tops begin to appear dry (30-35 minutes)**. Cool slightly, turn out molds and serve topped with pear and cream.

* the pears turned dark as soon as taken out of the syrup – a sprinkle of lemon juice should solve the problem

** a friend of mine who tried the tartlets told me they would taste even better with a creamier filling – less time in the oven next time

Makes 8 – I used 9cm tartlet pans and got 11 tartlets (just buttered them well – did not dust with cocoa)

Wondering how to adapt this for our Lactose-Intolerant family. Shortening or lard for the pastry, but would a neutral oil work for the filling? I'm thinking that the dark chocolate provides so much flavor that the butter flavor would not be missed very much.

Look, I'm sorry your brother killed your dog but chocolate is in fact poison to dogs, especially baker's chocolate. It's incredibly irresponsible to encourage the feeding of human food to pets as a lot of seemingly innocuous substances are not good for them.

I suggest referring to this in the future.

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.html

Chocolate is at the top of the list.

"When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death. Note that darker chocolate is more dangerous than milk chocolate. White chocolate has the lowest level of methylxanthines, while baking chocolate contains the highest."

Um, Christopher could have found a better way to say it but he is correct. Chocolate is POISONOUS to dogs. PLEASE, PLEASE, if you have a dog and you don't want to believe a comment in a food blog, at least look it up.

I can't believe how unsensitive some people can be. In Brazil, as early as 10 years ago, almost nobody knew how warmful chocolate could be to dogs, not to mention a children. When I was a kid I also had a dog to whom I would offer a bite of anything I ate, chocolate included. I had no idea it could poison her. Sadly, she died with 16 y.o, while I was in college. Even if her dog died by chocolate ingestion, wouldn't this be bad enough? Now, everybody knows you shouldn't feed a dog chocolate. Stop being so patronazing.It's a lovely picture by the way!

Dear Danda,Thank you for your comment. Clearly those people do not understand my post and/or how dogs are and used to be treated here. My dog died of a infection in her womb, after escaping and mating with a dog on the street. It had nothing to do with eating chocolate.

Can't thank you enough for your support. I hope to see you around here again!xx